Mo Kaba out for the season
For the second straight year, South Carolina linebacker Mo Kaba has suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Kaba suffered a left knee injury early in Saturday night’s contest against North Carolina and will miss the remainder of the 2023 season, the school announced today.
“Heart breaks for him,” South Carolina head coach Beamer said Tuesday. “Obviously a fantastic human being, first and foremost. Fantastic player for us. Really hard deal when he tore his ACL last year against Arkansas. And it was tough for us, obviously, to deal with from an emotional standpoint. Kid worked his butt off throughout the offseason, spring practice, was practicing with great energy. And was truly loving being back out there, as you can imagine, smile on his face every day at practice.
“So really hurt for him, but we’ll wrap our arms around him and we’ll see what the future holds. But I would ask everybody that’s affiliated with Gamecock Nation to please think about Mo, because this is tough on him, tough on our football team.”
The 6-foot-2, 253-pound redshirt junior from Clinton, N.C., was making his first appearance since suffering a season-ending injury to his right knee at Arkansas in the second game of the 2022 season.
Kaba, who played one snap on defense Saturday as well as on several special teams units, appeared to suffer the knee injury while running down the field to cover a kickoff early in the game.
A member of the 2020 SEC Coaches’ All-Freshman team, Kaba earned 2022 Jim Carlen Special Teams Player of the Spring and 2022 Most Improved Defensive Player of the Spring honors. He has collected 53 tackles in 25 games including five starts over the past four seasons.
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Kaba entered this season as a second-teamer at linebacker hoping to ease his way back into the mix behind starters Stone Blanton and Debo Williams.
He opened the 2022 season as a starter and arguably the team’s top linebacker, seemingly poised for a breakout season after a couple of years as a special teams standout and reserve defender.
In Week 2 of last season, Kaba went shooting into the backfield to tackle Arkansas QB K.J. Jefferson. But as Jefferson dodged his pursuit and another Carolina defender also engaged with the QB, Kaba came down awkwardly and felt the familiar twinge, tearing the ACL in the same knee he injured in high school.
Earlier this year, Kaba joined the Gamecock Central Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game to discuss the mental aspect of returning from a major injury.
“I just had to accept it for what it was,” Kaba said in March.. “You can’t be too sad on this type of injury. I realized from the first time I got hurt, I got too depressed and it didn’t help me any. I had to force myself to get out of that dark space. For the first week, you have to let that emotion out. I was sad, I was crying a little bit. I was just like, ‘Why? I felt like I did everything right.’ It was just taken from me out of nowhere. But once I got out of that mode and it was time to grind, I just knew I had to lock in and just keep my head forward and just keep working.”
USC Media Relations contributed to this report.
